Coconut Shavings
by Lavedovanera
Summary: Draco is determined to set straight Dobby The House Elf, who put detested coconut shavings on Draco's cake. But Draco soon finds out that he has more than an unruly elf on his hands, he has the elf’s loony protector, Hermione Granger. Dhr, Oneshot


Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, wish I did, but I don't.

Also the quote, _"Don't clutter up a clever scheme with morality" _was not invented by me; _Boen_ from _Dragonheart_ said that, I just borrowed it!

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**Coconut Shavings:**

Draco Malfoy's already pinched face pinched in a little tighter. Stupid, bloody buggering hell; damn that house elf, damn him.

Dobby the house elf kept putting shreds of coconut onto Draco's cake. Draco was at an extreme disadvantage in this; as dobby had known him for his whole life, thus knew what kind of cakes were Draco's favorite, what cakes he would instantly reach for; Lemon, Strawberry, Vanilla and Marzipan. But Dobby also knew which cakes Draco scorned at; which were cakes that had anything whatsoever to do with chocolate, raspberries, on a simple marzipan cake, though marzipan is rarely simple, the damned elf would sprinkle shreds of the dreaded coconut onto a once perfect cake.

Draco was at a loss to know why he did it; probably vengeful purposes. He hated coconut!

Draco hated a lot of things; Muggleborns, meat;

'Duh, _anemia'_, he told people; 'did you think Im _naturally _pale? How stupid are you?' He _was_ naturally pale but if he was going to have a weakness, by damn people would think it a _self_ inflicted weakness, plus, having an illness really helped ring in the ladies.

On with the list of things Draco detests: Gryffindors, milk, Gryffindors, Mudblood's, Gryffindors, Potter's hair, Gryffindors, Weasel's hair, Gryffindors, and Granger's hair.

Cor, they were like the top three blue ribbon winners of the, 'Ugly as Fuck Hairdo's in the History of Time' competition.

Aw, champions of Draco's small blue heart…not.

Wait…he would _never _eat any of the Golden Trio's hair, or any Gryffindors for that matter, but he _so_ could if wanted to.

_Man, I could have their hair shaved off and make some kindof ugly ass red-brown-black salad with dressing on the top. Because Im Draco Malfoy Dammit, the master of the universe. I kick so much ass the _world_ is probably in pain._

Draco quickly snapped out of his giddy Ruler of the World personality, however.

He did, after all, have a house elf to kill.

- - -

_I can't believe I do these sorts of things for my pride, you hear me father; kiss my ass _I_ got up at midnight to get revenge, you just wait till morning to get you're beauty sleep._

Actually Draco was just thinking these things to distract himself on how really scared he was of getting caught. He had determined that the best time to knock Dobby on his ass was midnight with no one around. It was almost too perfect and almost too easy, right after the Quidditch match, which had gone long into midnight and which Gryffindor won, much to Draco's displeasure, he slipped away from his friends and snuck to the kitchens.

Draco soon lost his pretense of sneaking and swaggered into the kitchens haughtily. The elves reminded him of chickens with their heads cut off, for as soon as he walked in they all started running around trying to please him. He soon caught sight of Dobby the House Elf, who seemed to know why Draco was there, and had a look of terror upon his face.

Draco walked up close and looked down upon the elf, who was trembling.

"Dobby, you know why Im here" he said in an extremely serious voice, "your putting coconut shaving on my cake"

After which Draco exploded, figuratively of course. Sentences like 'can't believe you and your infernal obsession with coconuts' also, 'never do that again unless I wish' and finally 'abominations of my tongue' ricocheted off of the walls.

"Stop it!"

Draco swung around; he was really _on one_, only to meet the current head girl, Hermione Granger.

Typical, The exact scenario that could make his day worse; being caught by someone who had the ability to punish him. Not only did she have the ability to punish, but she had the _right,_ as she had just caught him walking around after curfew.

"Granger, what are you doing down here, love affair with an elf maybe? I can understand it, they are the only ones who would date you" he smirked, "after all, they do what they're ordered to do"

Hermione's face turned such an intense red Draco almost felt…_giddy_. But whether it turned red because of anger or embarrassment was lost on Draco.

"_Bastard_, I would never order an elf to do such a thing" she said, her face still resembling a fire engine, but calming quickly, "but you came up with that insult quite fast, unnaturally fast Infact, do you have something to tell me?"

_Ok, anger._

She said the last part with such a cheeky manner that Draco almost saluted her; it isn't often you find a Slytherin heart in a Gryffindor body.

"Clever Granger, you must be witty"

"You should respect house elves you ass, every single one of these elf's are twenty times better than you on your best day."

Now it was Draco's moment to turn bright red; definitely with anger.

He stepped up heinously close to her, and looked like he would kick her and run away.

"Oh, ho!" said Hermione scornfully, "Big tough guy"

"I wish _you_ were a guy"

"Why!" she snorted, "so you could beat me up without feeling guilty? What_ever_, I'd kick your ass." She didn't say it like a threat, she said it like it was fact, probably was.

"Well _Mudblood" _he said, trying to get the subject back to her house-elf obsession,_ "_you would understand if you weren't lower than a house elf yourself!"

_MEOW_!

Hermione and Draco turned from their very loud argument just in time to see Mrs. Norris, Filch's damned abomination of a cat, running out of the kitchens for her master.

Hermione and Draco looked at each other for a breath of a moment before both yelling the exact same advice to the other

"RUN!"

- - -

Draco raced along the corridors to the stairway, Hermione close behind him. Normally he wouldn't allow the Mudblood to be in such close space as himself, but this was a special occasion.

It was so pitch dark Draco couldn't see a thing, rather funny though, because it was so dark that he tripped on the staircase he was making his way for. Draco heard Hermione giggle, but ignored it, and took the stairs in giant leaps of energy, that is, until he stopped when he heard a reverberating _crash_!

He then turned and saw something that amused him profusely; Hermione granger had forgotten about the trick stair, was stuck inside said stair, and at his mercy.

She seemed to realize his thoughts and said, "Don't you dare, Malfoy, don't you _dare_ leave me here or I _will_ make you regret it!"

"I wasn't thinking that" he said heatedly, he was the only one who could threaten ominously here, "but that's a great idea, Ta ta Granger!"

After which he continued running up the stairs, completely ignoring Hermione's whispered yells.

After that horrible scenario Draco soon reached the top of the stair and kept running down the nearest corridor in the darkness. For a moment Draco felt amused, but then another feeling crashed down on him in waves, you and I know this feeling of course, us being unlike Draco Malfoy, who never gave a whit about anyone.

We know of this feeling as guilt. Draco however, did not, and stopped his running to wonder at the wrenching of his gut. He screwed his face up in pain; what was this, an internal injury he had gotten from yelling at Granger?

With the thought of the young girl he had left to be found and punished, his heart gave another pull.

_Granger did this, she did say I would regret it if I left her there._

He couldn't help it; he was just naturally rude to her. Like a Pavlov dog thing, she showed up so he reacted by being a horse's ass. It was utterly unstoppable. Inevitable.

Then Draco, immersed in his thoughts, promptly ran into a coat of armor that clanked so much with the crash that he almost felt like he _knew _granger could hear it on the stairway, and was laughing at him. He would have laughed at her, if it were the other way around.

Draco went still as he heard footsteps approaching.

MEOW!

_Shit!_

"Yes there is a student" Filch wheezed.

Bloody great, the psycho had found him, it was judgment day, and his judge was a nasty man with bad teeth, worse hair and a reputation for having a love affair with his cat.

_Double shit!_

Draco froze, letting the darkness envelope him so that filch could not see Draco, and had to put his arms out like a mad-ass and feel for him. This was it. If he ran, he would be heard, and probably run into the light thus being seen by filch; and he was a very recognizable student to Filch. It probably had something to do with Draco cursing the cursed Mrs. Norris, making her…well let's just say this; she showed a lot more _love _for Filch for about a week, more love than usual. A love that a girl cat is probably only supposed to show to boy cats; well, he supposed a cat could be a lesbian; it wasn't his place to judge.

_Aw Im such a nice guy. Yup, I might even give Granger a chance……._

_Pshya! When Voldemort comes back from the dead and adopts Potter. _

That would be the day. Anyway, the point is the Filch got maddeningly closer to Draco, who was, as the aristocrats say, 'Dressed in his best to go down like a man'

….Yes, a kicking, screaming, whiney, bitter man.

Draco panicked as he suddenly felt a hand out of nowhere wrench him into the broom cupboard near by, this was it! This nasty old man was going to beat the crap out of him and his infernal cat from hell was going to watch!!!!!

But the thing about Malfoy's is that they don't go down without a fight. If you shoved a wand in the face of a Malfoy, telling said Malfoy to either be killed or lick your shoes, a _true_ Malfoy would choose the former.

Because that's the thing isn't it? It doesn't matter whether you're a better person morally, physically, or mentally (though those things definitely help, though the first is not relevant in Draco's case, he was never a moral man) the only the thing that can get other people to worship you is to act like your worth worshiping.

Acting like you know everything, like you have the world in your palm and all you have to do is squeeze and it would shatter, as if you could put off death itself (While at the same time being ridiculously good looking) And if you act long enough, the act will become reality.

Consequently, if you act like you can beat the shit out of 70 year old man, and the 70 year old man believes you, well…it would become a reality, wouldn't it?

So, if you don't already know, Draco started kicking his captor like Filch was the devil come for his soul. But, luckily for Draco, It wasn't a devil, but an angel, a very bushy haired, pissed off angel.

Though I don't see how anyone could ever get far with God if they kicked the shit out of one of his angels.

- - -

BASTARD!...What a bastard. He had left her.

Did you ever wish that someone would just drop down and die, and then that everyone would start screaming _hallelujah!_

Well…if Hermione Granger could have that dream come true, she would have that person be Draco Malfoy, and oh boy would she be screaming praises to the high heavens for her wish being granted. But enough of that, Hermione Granger had plenty of other things to do than wish for Draco's demise, though that was going to the top of her list after she got her leg out of this bloody stair.

_Ouch. What the hell do I do now? _

Her leg was crammed into the board of the stair, making it _ache _so much she felt her eyes water. But the moment she found herself close to crying, Hermione shut her eyes and forced herself to remain calm, clenched her jaw, and didn't make a sound.

_I feel no pain, I feel no pain, it is not there, and I feel no pain._

Damn straight.

Because if you tell yourself something 'isn't happening' enough, rather like Draco's thoughts on believing you're a god, you will eventually feel as if nothing is happening, or, in Draco's case, that you are a god. Doesn't mean that something _isn't _happening, or that your _are _a god, just means that you think that thing that you forced yourself to believe…well, you believe it. And that's the only thing that really matters isn't it?

What _you_ think.

And so, after Hermione's pain had passed (psychologically) she bent over, wiggled her leg around with her hands, and wrenched her aching leg out. After which she hastily pulled the invisibility cloak out of her bad, wrapped it around herself, and swiftly began limping up the stairs after Draco Malfoy.

Speaking of Draco Malfoy, these were Hermione's thoughts.

_He is so dead, castrated even! I will seriously damage him for this, asshole, do you think people are _born _to mimic the devil…oh look, there he is._

Indeed he was, Hermione had walked upon Draco Malfoy, not the devil, sorry, cornered up against a wall with a warrior face on, with filch reaching around for Draco like a blind monkey looking for bananas.

How lovely! She leaned against the wall and watched the funny scene, ready to bask in Malfoy's downfall; she had gotten her wish…..Except…

………_Be careful what you wish for._

Mind numbing guilt crashed upon Hermione like a wave from an ocean. Was she really that far gone? Had she really just planned to watch Draco Malfoy fail? Had he _really_ rubbed of on her this much, after being alone for one fight? Shit!

But she was _so _ready to watch him squirm, to watch him serve detention for a lifetime, to watch his fellow Slytherins fury at losing house points...And now, at her point of victory, for her glory to be ruined by her bloody guilt.

"_Don't clutter up a clever scheme with morality, Granger; you're ruining this for me"_

Hermione had heard Malfoy say that once in a detention she had given him after he had made Harry's hair golden and curly, but still stick out crazily, at the time she had rolled her eyes and pitied him (though it had been rather funny). But now she was loathe at finding that she knew exactly how he felt. And that thought was as bitter to her as tasting sewer water only to find that yes; it was indeed _not _a fountain of youth.

Also, something in her just couldn't watch him get caught…a very small something; but _something _nonetheless.

Having convinced herself of her own uprightness (or uptightness, if you consider her character) Hermione grabbed Draco by the arm in a vice like grip and pulled him into a broom closet close by. And for her efforts, she was almost kicked to death.

"Stop it you bloody fool!"

"Granger?!"

"Yes, now shut up before he comes in here," Hermione frantically whispered while rubbing her newly battered shin, "Cor, you're bloody lucky Filch is half deaf, we'd be hanging from the dungeons by now if he weren't"

"Well, if you're capture had distracted him like I meant it to, then I wouldn't be having this problem" he said smugly, "Now would I, Granger?"

_How can he do that! How can he make it seem like my fault, while at the same time being ridiculously good looking…I didn't think that, I didn't think that._

But the thing is thoughts and pain doesn't coincide in the ways they are forgotten. Hermione couldn't make herself not feel the way she did by saying she didn't feel that way over and over, much to her pleasure.

Draco looked exasperated and confused all in one, "Why did you come back granger? Why did you help me? Have you _no_ sense of justice, you had me in your bloody hand, you really _are_ a wimp"

Hermione, instead of being furious as she should have been, didn't say anything at all.

"Im waiting granger, what do you want for helping me?"

_What? He was expecting me to ask for some kind of payment?_

"You're pathetic Malfoy, I- I helped you because…it was the right thing to do"

She said the first part of this with extreme strength and meaning but…faltered towards the end. And Draco noticed.

"Sure granger. Now why did you _really _help me" he said in irritation, "and don't lie this time, you're horrid at it"

Silence reigned for a moment, and then she spoke uncertainly

"I don't know"

"What do you mean you don't know?" he said stupidly, "you had better tell me now, I don't like riddles"

Hermione snorted at the last part, glad to be back on familiar ground, "that probably why you're so stupid" _and cute, cluelessness is cute….AH! STOP IT!_

"Im not stupid granger," Hermione watched as a bogus dawning look of comprehension came to Draco's face in the darkness which her eyes had become accustomed to, "you love me don't you" he said cheekily.

_Hmm, he's rather close….NO HE IS NOT! Wait..He is close_

He was, in the way you're thinking, but also…his body was in tremendously close proximity to hers…

"Don't worry Granger" he said with a long suffering sigh, "these feelings will pass in time"

_They will _not _pass if you don't get away from me RIGHT NOW!_

I think you know what feelings she is talking about, so I won't waste time describing them.

"You see, the thing is that you're just not woman enough for me" he said with fake sorrow, "I know, I know come to mama chi-"

Hermione couldn't stand it anymore

Draco found himself one moment using a fake southern accent and the next moment having himself kissed passionately by one Hermione Granger. Draco was shocked for a moment, but then put his right hand on her waist, left on her neck, and began kissing her back.

It was now her turned to be shocked, not shocked enough to stop kissing him, but shocked enough.

She kissed him because he was outrageously gorgeous and…something else. And he kissed her because well, come on, these opportunities only come once in a while and, let's admit it…something else.

Let's take a moment to talk about _something else_. Something else is the description of a feeling that you refuse to believe you feel because you're a stubborn idiot; now that we're clear, onward.

Draco and Hermione made out for quite some time, to put it bluntly. They halted only when they heard the door open, looking up only to find a _very_ disturbed Minerva McGonagall. Disturbed because, come on, it was about a one in a million chance for her to ever find her favorite student and her least favorite student making out in the middle of the night in a broom closet!

She was so disturbed Infact, that she didn't even them detention. Or take off points, just walked away in a trance like state.

"We'd better go" Hermione said, trying to level out the moment, "she could come to her senses and return to give us detention"

"Right" said Malfoy distractedly. After which they both left the broom closet, Draco going right, Hermione going left. Well, almost.

Hermione felt herself be turned around to face Malfoy.

"Now you have two questions to answer granger" he said heatedly, "Why you helped me and why you kissed me"

Hermione thought quickly, and came up with an answer for one of the questions, and not the one she thought would be easier to answer.

"Well, for the latter" she said nastily, "I just needed you to shut up so I could hear myself think"

He wasn't distracted by her sudden mood change, "and the former?"

"I said I didn't know" she then walked off angrily.

- - -

3 months! 3 months had passed, and he was still thinking about that night.

How could she not know! You should know these things! He knew these things! He damaged people and enjoyed their pain, which was it! No deep thoughts, no sentimental guilt! Nothing! And yet here she had helped him…..and kissed him.

His maddening confusion had then turned into maddening curiosity, which had promptly turned into maddening obsession with the bushy haired beauty.

So he began watching her, only to find an amalgam of oddities and quirks in her wake. She kept clips sticking out of her hair at all angles, and when she was in deep thought she would suddenly break out and knock on wood, as if she had just thought something that might suddenly turn contrary unless she did so. He saw her throw salt over her shoulder, followed her to the Astronomy tower to watch her as she gazed at stars, he even caught her once lift up her hand to eye lever, to check if she was trembling.

He watched her so much he knew how uncomfortable she was with him watching her.

And books! He watched her giggle at books, cry at books, be angry at books, immersed, obsessed..Everything, every emotion, he had seen her portray. She looked to the ceiling when in thought, stared at people when in a daze, and even had her own Granger smirk that always confused him.

And yet, after all of this, he still knew nothing of why she had helped him that night. He knew he should write her help off to her bloody morals, but something stopped him. Like there was something else he was forgetting, that maybe even she didn't know.

This was it! He was done! He was going to ask her again if it killed him. And, as if sent from the heavens, Hermione Granger got up from the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall and trotted off to her trusty library. Draco pounced on his chance and followed her.

- - -

Hermione grinned her devil grin; she had caught Pansy and Blaise making out in the restricted section! She couldn't wait to issue detention and take points.

"That ambitious glare is rather sexy Granger, though I must say, it belongs on a Slytherin"

She whipped around and found herself heinously close to Draco Malfoy's face. For a moment she had no idea what to say, but the spell was quickly broken as he lifted his left eyebrow up sexily.

"Don't clutter up a clever scheme with morality, Malfoy; you're ruining this for me."

He looked surprised for a moment, but then laughed out loud. After which both Blaise and Pansy looked up, saw the other pair, and then ran away.

"Oh great Malfoy!" Hermione said with genuine anger, "they're gone now, look! Watch them scatter like rats!"

Draco looked amused for a moment; his incessant stalking had apparently changed granger's attitude a bit, but soon his face turned serious.

"Why did you save me that night Granger?" he said levelly.

"Shhh!" hissed Hermione "People _can_ hear you!"

Draco then thought about what he had said a moment before, realized that it sounded very sexual indeed, and almost burst out laughing again.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY GRANGER?!" Draco yelled loudly, "YOU WANT TO _KILL_ ME?" Draco smirked at her horrified face "WHAT EVER FOR?"

After which Hermione sent an apologetic glance to the audience watching Draco's antics. Though they were probably more interested as to why the two were talking anyway, as it was widely known that the two hated each other. As for Hermione wanting to kill him; nobody really minded if Draco died anyway, but the potential of these two having private affairs was intriguing.

Hermione grabbed his robes and pulled him into the restricted section where Pansy and Blaise had just been.

"Why, Granger, this is so sudden! Should I be on top, or bottom?"

"Shut up! Just _shut up_!" she screeched. And surprisingly, he did. "You need to leave me alone Malfoy, I have a life to lead, things to do, people to be an example for. So quit staring at me, quit your stalking, leave me alone. I have so much to do right now and this is my life and you're not in i-"

Draco Malfoy _had _to shut her up, using her excuse for last time, so he could hear himself think, she was driving him crazy! And well, there was only one way. Not actually, he just really wanted to kiss her.

Hermione blinked. She was pretty sure she was conscious; though why she would dream about Draco Malfoy kissing her was beyond comprehension. This was real; he was kissing her….again.

Draco stopped himself before he smiled; Malfoy's did not smile, especially at bucktoothed Mudblood's.

Draco Malfoy smiled through their kiss, and Hermione felt it.

_He is smiling because of _me_! Why! How could I bring a joyless creature satisfaction?!_

Her hair, which is still horrible in this story sorry to disappoint you, was dozing about everywhere because Draco had ruffled it, said hair had enveloped Hermione and Draco's heads like a bubble. Draco felt her hair whip across his face, forehead and slightly pink cheeks. He almost sneezed as one lone hair made a tantalizing run above his lip as he was kissing her neck. And he smelled……..coconut.

The irony of the Mudblood's thicket like hair smelling like something he despised was not lost on Draco.

Probably a sign.

Now he wasn't as loony as Trelawney, but he didn't believe in coincidences either.

Pansy smelled like vanilla. No, scratch that, every girl in the history of _time _smelled like vanilla. Except one.

Hermione Granger did everything different didn't she? Run to the wind and damn the consequences, though her studious attitude was not half as interesting as running into the wind and damning the consequences. How about this; she studied with wild abandon. That sounded about right to Draco. But he really didn't care right now, for despite said studious attitude, Hermione Granger was damn good kisser.

As they broke apart they just stared at each other. They weren't the only ones staring, as the whole population of the library was staring at them also, you see, they had moved quite a bit and were now in plain view. Draco knew that by the end of the day the rumor that Draco Malfoy was dating Hermione Granger would be spread about the school.

And Draco found that he didn't mind. He looked at Hermione, who looked stunned, and then promptly walked away. Or tried to.

"Granger" he said, he would have nothing out of his control, if a rumor was going to be spread about him, by damn, it would be his doing "Will you go out with me?"

Or at least he told himself it was so he could be in control of the situation; inside he felt…something else. He then remembered that he had asked her out, and watched her with anticipation, expecting a flat out no.

He was surprised.

"Just…let me think" she said, thinking about their recent kiss and her strange feelings for him, and then she walked away.

And he did just that, walking away himself.

- - -

Months passed, and he was becoming more and more insane every day. 1. He was waiting for Granger's answer 2. Granger now stared at him almost as much as he did her 3. The whole school thought she had refused his prestigious offer somewhere private or that they were having a secret affair.

In other words; Draco was anxious, uncomfortable, and embarrassed all in one. He should have just left her that day in the library and told everybody that he slept with her once. But it could not be so because of his damned pride. It _would _have been better if people thought that the kissing scene was just a rumor, because then he could have denied anybody who asked and laughed in their face, and her friends wouldn't have abandoned her.

Yes, its true, from the moment of their famous kiss in the library Hermione Granger was alone wherever she went. Her bastard friends had abandoned her. Draco couldn't say the same for himself, the Slytherins worshiped him like a God, and so if he said that it was alright to kiss Mudblood's in the library and then ask them out, well…they had better head off to the library and find themselves one.

They did actually, which was strange enough. Rapidly after his impromptu kiss with Granger something extraordinary happened. The Slytherins started dating people other than fellow Slytherins; which was fabulous, in Draco's opinion, the ugly needed to be breeded out of the beautiful Slytherin house; for if they all kept reproducing with each other, it never would. Really, Draco was lucky both of his parents were good looking and found each other, he didn't think he could bear not being beautiful.

Anyway, it was like an invisible law had given the Slytherins the O.K. to date anyone; People from other houses, pure bloods, half-bloods, Mudblood's, anyone. For the war was over, and almost every occupant of Slytherin had dead parents, thus dead views. Oh don't be mistaken, there were still the stubborn few who held onto their, 'Mudblood's should die and I should rule the world' idea. But for the most part the idea died in the Slytherin house. And don't automatically jump to the conclusion that the other houses were suddenly willing to date the Slytherins, it came gradually.

The funniest thing had to be that the house the Slytherin students dated the most were, well….Gryffindors. The Slytherins didn't date Gryffindors because Draco had asked one out. They dated them because, before the great fight between Salazar Slytherin and Godric Gryffindor, the two houses had been best friends, and the personalities of the houses had been perfectly aligned and ready for the best of friendships.

So in other words, Slytherins started going to the Gryffindor hangouts, and just acted out their true personality. And the effect was monumental; the Slytherins grew on the Gryffindors, and vice versa. After years of hating each other, they found that they rather liked the other.

So it wasn't strange to see a Slytherin and a Gryffindor walking down the hall together, laughing.

The filling of the breach even had an effect upon the teachers, for McGonagall and Slughorn stopped having their daily argument about which kids were worth noticing, and which ones weren't.

However one Slytherin and one Gryffindor were still not together. Hypocrites that Harry and Ron were, _they _even started dating Slytherins! But Draco and Hermione were still apart.

- - -

Hermione put her face into her hands in exhaustion. These few months had been…trying. Hah! Understatement of the century, they had been utter hell. Right after that sudden…er..Scene in the library Hermione had not been able to not think of Malfoy, she couldn't even stop herself from peeking a few times at time…ok more than a few times.

_Yea, about a hundred._

_Shut up! _

That was another problem; her self-conscious was warring against her, because her self-conscious fancied Draco Malfoy very much indeed… at least that was what Hermione told herself, that some strange odd part inside her was trying to get her to like Malfoy; but Hermione knew she was just fooling herself, she liked Draco Malfoy. And it was high time she gave him an answer to his question.

She might as well say yes. Harry and Ron hated her, so what was the point of making them hate her more, they still hated her. And if she were with Malfoy, she might not be so alone.

But she had lots of reasons to say no also. Like the fact that he was a complete asshole. She knew he wouldn't change for her, but did she really mind, did she like him _because _he was an asshole?

Damning her indecisive mind, but a mind that had come to its decision nonetheless, Hermione rose from her chair in the library and head off to the great hall.

- - -

Draco watched Hermione with anticipation as she walked across the hall, she had done the inevitable; she had passed the Gryffindor table, and was heading toward the Slytherin one.

And the students of the school hall watched Draco watch Hermione with anticipation. What if she came to say no? Ruination, that's what, ruination. It would be an embarrassment for sure, to be turned down so publicly.

Draco's thought process stopped when he heard the Great Hall ring in silence, he looked up and met her gaze as she sat down, and began eating with him. Draco, however, could not eat just yet, as he had lost his appetite.

And then she looked up at him, smiled and nodded; her way of a sure fired and adored _yes, even though you're a jerk, I will go out with you._

After which Draco quickly looked down, and the occupants of the hall were quickly relieved and excited. But Hermione knew that his smirk was different from his usual, it was a happy smirk, though it still had its evil quality.

And that was the thing, for the rest of their dating experience she didn't ask him to change for her, and he didn't. And he wouldn't have changed if she _had_ asked him. He stayed the exact same, an unreasonable bastard that was sometimes funny, and sometimes romantic. But most of the times a complete and utter prick.

And she hadn't changed for him either; she was still the same braincase, mother-hen, horrid haired, modest prude, Hermione Granger.

Neither of them changed, only that they changed their taste and tolerance for the other. Somewhere in the crazy engine genius mind of hers with wheels and pulleys, and the in arrogant pearl embedded mind of his with crowns and diamond embedded brooms, each had grown on the other.

Strange isn't it? But the world was ever so.

As Draco looked down he found cake upon his plate, his appetite quickly returned. Eager to distract himself from his bushy haired (but beloved) nightmare…Draco took a bite.

Absolute pleasure rushed through Draco, this cake was different, what was it? Draco examined the cake, earning very strange stares from an amused Hermione, only to find that it was an average lemon cake.

But with one slight difference……it had coconut shreds on the top.

Peculiarly enough Draco didn't mind a bit. He had tasted coconut again, after months of absence, and found it pleasing to his taste; Draco _had_ ordered Dobby not to give it him unless he wanted it, after all.

Draco went on to admire the taste of coconut through his whole life, Infact he loved coconut _so_ much that he ended up marrying a woman who's hair _smelled _like coconut, what a small world this is, is it not?

Because at that table Draco had realized something;

He realized that maybe after years of tasting and hating coconut, avoiding it, scorning it… He just needed a few years before beginning to appreciate the taste and quality of coconut.

His conclusion was that coconut was a thing you had to hate for _years_ and then get a taste for at the least expected moment.

And that, my friends, is that.

The End


End file.
